BBC Fighting escalates in West Bank Palestinians reported heavy fighting in Jenin and Jericho Palestinian officials say Israeli forces have killed three Palestinians and wounded 11 in a new incursion into the West Bank town of Jenin.

Israeli tanks had also rolled into the Palestinian-controlled town the previous night. At least seven Palestinians were reported killed in the earlier clashes.

Palestinian officials said Israeli forces attacked a local government building in Jenin on Thursday.

Heavy fighting was also reported in Palestinian-controlled Jericho further south, where Palestinian officials said some 20 Israeli tanks accompanied by bulldozers made an incursion.

Loudspeakers on mosques called people out to defend the town against the invading Israeli forces, witnesses said.

The Israeli army said it had no comment on the reported incursion into Jericho.

"There is fierce resistance to the Israelis. The tanks are moving towards Palestinian headquarters, where all the Palestinian security offices are located," said Palestinian cabinet minister Saeb Erekat, a Jericho resident.

'Connected to US attacks'

Mr Erekat drew a connection between the incursions and the terror attacks in New York and Washington on Tuesday that destroyed the World Trade Center and damaged the Pentagon.

"The Israelis are using the tragedy of the events in New York and Washington, feeling that the attention of the world is elsewhere," he said.

It was not immediately clear what the purpose of the latest Israeli incursion was, but the presence of the bulldozers indicated that they intended to tear down Palestinian structures.

The main official Palestinian buildings in the town are an old military base used as police headquarters and a prison.

Suicide bombers

Early on Wednesday, Israeli tanks destroyed a police building in Jenin. Israel says the town has been a breeding ground for suicide bombers.

The Israeli prime minister's office called the town "a hornet's nest" from where it said at least six suicide bombing missions had been carried out since the Palestinian uprising began last September.

Israel says a suicide bomber who blew himself up in the Israeli coastal town of Nahariya on Sunday, killing three Israelis, had been trained by a Hamas cell based in Jenin.

-- Anonymous, September 13, 2001